


Shadows, Changing

by sister_wolf



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman Beyond, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Dead Robins, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-02-25
Updated: 2005-02-25
Packaged: 2017-10-12 07:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/122169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sister_wolf/pseuds/sister_wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm Jason. Jason Todd. And as for how I got here... well. That's a little complicated."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows, Changing

**Author's Note:**

> The Random DC Pairing Generator suggested Terry McGinnis / Jason Todd. *blinks*
> 
> There are some continuity issues with the various Robin costumes. Trying to make comics and cartoons canon fit together causes migraines, so... *handwavey*

Terry slumped in front of the console, wearily considering taking the uniform off, and decided it was just too damn much effort at this point. *Long* night. Long, *painful* night. He rotated his shoulder, wincing-- really should get an ice pack on that before it stiffened much more...

Suddenly there were hands on his shoulder, strong fingers digging into the knotted muscle. Terry groaned and leaned his head to one side. He hadn't even heard Bruce approaching-- not that *that* was unusual. Even with a cane, the old man still moved as quietly as-- well, as Batman.

"Thanks," he said, grunting as Bruce's fingers hit a particularly bad knot.

"No problem," replied a husky tenor voice, sounding amused. Terry spun around in his chair. That was definitely *not* Bruce.

A dark-haired young man grinned at him, muscular arms crossed under a bright yellow cape-- the little sonofabitch was wearing the *Robin* costume.

Terry sprang to his feet, grabbing for the kid. "Listen, I don't know who the hell you are or how you got in here--"

The kid somehow evaded his hands without even seeming to move an inch. "I'm Jason. Jason Todd. And as for how I got here... well. That's a little complicated."

"What are you talking about?" Terry grabbed for him again and missed. Damn, the kid was *fast*.

"Put it together, *Batman*, if you're *half* the detective Bruce was." The kid smirked, tapping his fingers on his arm.

Punk kid managed to get into the Batcave without setting off any alarms, he knew who *Bruce* was, and he was wearing the first Robin costume, the one Dick Grayson had worn. But there had never been a Robin named Jason Todd. Terry chewed on the inside of his lower lip, thinking. Time traveling? Different dimension? He'd heard of weirder things, in Bruce's old casefiles.

The kid started singing an intensely irritating tune, off key. "Doot doot doot doot, doot doot doo..."

"Shut *up*. I'm thinking."

"Think faster, *Batman*." Snorting, the kid wandered toward the console. "Man, this is a sweet set-up. You get the Playboy channel on this thing?"

"Don't touch that," Terry said absently. There was something about him-- of course. No shadow. *Whatever* he might be, Jason Todd wasn't flesh and bone. "You're a... ghost?"

"Bingo! I'll take supernatural apparitions for five hundred. Wait, do you guys even *have* Jeopardy anymore? ... Anyway, yeah, you're right. I'm a ghost. Or something. I'm dead, anyway," Jason said, shrugging.

"But there wasn't any Robin named Jason Todd--"

"Not in *this* universe." For the first time, Jason sounded tentative, as he asked, "So, um. You're Batman now. How did-- how did Bruce die?"

"He didn't," Terry said, frowning.

"Bruce is still alive? Then why isn't he Batman?" Jason demanded, scowling ferociously.

"I retired." Bruce stepped out of the shadows near the stairs. Terry jumped a little, wondering how long Bruce had been lurking there.

Leaning on his cane almost as an afterthought, the old man crossed the Cave floor to loom over Jason, frowning down at him thoughtfully. "I don't know you."

"I-- I know. I was hoping-- when the gates opened, a bunch of us just sort of wandered out and-- I. I just wanted to *see* you, Bruce." Jason's voice cracked, making him sound much younger than his apparent age.

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "You wandered out of hell?"

Indignantly, Jason yelped, "No! Jeez, Bruce, I *told* you that Garzonas slipped. You *never* fucking believed me-- Never mind. That wasn't even you, was it?" He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Anyway, *no*, I wasn't in hell. Purgatory. It's boring as shit. Like being stuck in study hall for years and *years*."

Terry snickered, shutting up when Jason and Bruce trained virtually identical glares on him.

"And so you gravitated to a familiar location, not realizing that somehow you'd appeared in a dimension where you'd never been Robin. Intriguing. If, that is, you are who you claim to be." Bruce sat in his chair by the console, leaning his cane in its usual spot.

Jason rolled his eyes. "I see *some* things never change. Ah, crap," he said, glancing toward the east. "They must have fixed whatever went wrong-- I can feel it pulling me back." The intense colors of his costume were beginning to fade, his outline becoming transparent.

"Well, fuck it. You may not be *my* Bruce, but if I only get one chance to do this--" Cracking his neck decisively, Jason strode over to Bruce and straddled him. Planting his hands on Bruce's shoulders, he leaned forward and kissed him.

Terry felt his eyebrows try to merge with his hairline. Bruce's hands were clenched on the arms of the chair, his expression something like a man being subjected to a very pleasurable electric shock. Jason's form continued to fade as they kissed, until Terry could actually see Bruce kissing him back through Jason's hazy shape.

Almost completely transparent, Jason pulled back, his hands cupping Bruce's face. "I just-- I missed you so much. And even though you're not *my* Bruce-- I'm glad I got to do this." Glancing over his shoulder at Terry, he added with a sly grin, "Oh, and Bruce-- you really should *tell* this one that you want him."

Terry's mouth dropped open. Snickering, Jason faded out of existence.

Bruce steepled his fingers with a thoughtful "Hmm."

Silence filled the cave.

"Well, *that* was interesting," Terry said after a few minutes. "Think he really was what he claimed?"

"Hn."

More silence.

"Right. I'm just going to... assume that you won't kill me for this." The Batman uniform definitely made straddling someone in a chair challenging, but Terry managed it. He grinned at Bruce's stony expression, flexing his hands on shoulders that felt like slabs of bedrock. "Oh, come on. I just got confirmation from beyond the *grave* that you want me, so you can just forget the stoic look."

Kissing Bruce felt like flinging himself against a brick wall-- again and again-- until suddenly Bruce's hands clamped onto his shoulders with a force like inevitability, hauling him closer-- and Bruce was kissing him like it was a way to *possess* him, hard mouth and bruising fingers, *claiming* him.

Pulling away eventually, Terry rested his forehead against Bruce's shoulder, panting. Everything he'd wanted for so long, everything he'd been afraid to ask for, and all due to the meddling of a dead Robin who'd never really existed. Terry bit his lip, trying not to break into deeply inappropriate laughter.

"So... how close *were* you to your Robins, anyway?"

"Hn."


End file.
